History

CITIC Group was founded as China International Trust Investment Corporation (Chinese: 中国国际信托投资公司; abb.CITIC), a Chinese state-owned enterprise in 1979. In 1980s Chinese government founded many for profit corporations, which CITIC was under the leadership of Rong Yiren, a former businessman and politician at that time, who chose to stay in the Mainland China in 1950s after his family business was nationalized.[6] His son, Larry Yung (Yung was another transliteration of the same surname 榮), was the former chairman of CITIC Group's listed subsidiary CITIC Pacific.

Its subsidiary, CITIC Pacific (Chinese: 中信泰富, now known as CITIC Limited), made unauthorized bets on the foreign currency market in October 2008 and lost HK$14.7 billion (US$1.9 billion, when accounted for in mark-to-market terms). Senior executives such as Financial Controller Chau Chi-Yin and Group Finance Director Leslie Chang resigned.[7][8][9] Its stock price plunged 55.1 percent upon the resumption of trade.[10]

CITIC Group injected most of their assets to CITIC Limited in 2014. However, CITIC Guoan Group was excluded, which was recapitalized by other private capital.

In 2015, CITIC Group sold 10% stake of CITIC Limited to a joint-venture of Itochu and Charoen Pokphand for HK$34.4 billion (US$4.54 billion); the joint venture also subscribed new convertible preferred shares for HK$45.9 billion (or US$5.9 billion).[11] It was reported it was the largest investment ever made by a Japanese general trading company.[12] The transaction is also the largest acquisition in China by a Japanese company, and the largest investment by foreigners in a Chinese state-owned enterprise.[13]

In 2016, CITIC Group ranked 156th among the Fortune Global 500, with an annual revenue of $55,938 million.[14]